THE INVITATION

'It doesn't interest me what you do for living. I want to know what you ache for, and you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. i want to know if you will risk looking a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squiring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your sorrow, if you have been opened by the life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of future pain! I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty even if it's not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from its present.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours or mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, 'Yes!'

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after a night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, form the inside, when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly love the company you keep in the empty moments. '

-Oriah-